"Live From Rodney Drive" was recorded in front of a live studio audience.

Friday, January 12, 2007

The First Los Angeles Trip: 10 Years Later, Day 7

Vegas, baby, Vegas...the funny thing is that when we went to Vegas, no one was saying that, mainly because "Swingers" hadn't come out on video yet, so no one had seen it. Out of the 12, I think only 2 were 21 at this point, and the rest of us were 20, so Vegas was a playground that we barely explored, mainly because security was on our ass quite a lot (more on that tomorrow). This entry does have my favorite picture in it...it's a diagram I made to remember an incredible moment of discovery on our trip.

Sunday, January 12, 1997

Kingman, AZ to Las Vegas, NV104 Miles

1:30pm: We’re in Vegas now. Last night, we played some Egyptian Rat Screw (NOTE FROM 2007: It's a card game for those who don't know) and went to bed. Before we went to sleep, Patry was getting into bed and hit his head incredibly hard. Very funny. This morning, we went to the restaurant next door to the hotel for breakfast. Everyone encouraged me to get the buffet so they could see me puke again, but I didn’t. So much for peer pressure.

We took off for Vegas and all we saw were deserts and tumbleweed tumbling across the road. We hit Hoover Dam, which was cool to look straight down. Andrew and I tried to roll pennies down it, but they pretty much just flew down.We also discovered something else at Hoover Dam: If you try to spit over the edge, the wind is so strong, that the spit won’t go down. Andrew spit off the side, and it started going down to the bottom, but the wind took it up, and it flew over our heads, over the sidewalk, and onto the street. It was the coolest thing. Here’s a diagram:

(NOTE FROM 2007: This is the actual diagram from my journal)

This was quite a discovery. I gave it a shot too, and it worked. Dave witnessed both. A highlight of the trip. After that, we left the damn and drove to Vegas.

Plotting the drive to Vegas:

We got to Vegas and got a room. We’re off the strip in a motel. The Panthers lost to the Packers in the NFC Championship game. Bryan and Jamie wanted to watch the Patriots play the Jaguars in the AFC Championship game, so Andrew, Patry, Mike, and I decided to walk around. We went to the convention center to see the Consumer Electronic Showcase, but didn’t see too much because we didn’t have passes (although we got some free crap).

Then, we walked over to the strip. We stopped at Treasure Island and played a few dollars on the slot machines. I ended up losing two dollars. Then it was over to the Mirage, and then to Caesar’s Palace. At Caesar’s, we walked through this mall that was part of the hotel. As the mall ends, there’s a few slot machines, so Mike started to play. A security officer came over just as Mike was finishing and Andrew was sitting down to play. The guard asked for ID and it was a good thing Andrew was playing because he’s 21.

We walked back to Treasure Island to watch an outdoor show, but it was cancelled because of bad weather. Las Vegas is very interesting. The 7-11 had sparkling lights – very cheesy. You walk around and people hand you pamphlets of porn. It’s crazy. The casinos are cool. We went into one of the areas for sports betting and everyone was watching football. We’re going out tonight – where, I don’t know.

Mike called a stripper and asked for rates. The stripper asked for information, so he gave out our hotel name, room number, and Patry’s name. D’oh!!! Now we're all freaked out that the stripper and her pimp will come, break into our room, and steal all of our stuff.

We’re very hungry and waiting for Dawn, Michelle, and Bonnie to get back. They went out to the Mall. Earlier, when we were walking around the strip, we saw them sitting in the car at a red light, but they didn’t notice us. Andrew walked over to their car to hand them a porno pamphlet. When he knocked on the window, Bonnie nearly shit her pants. Really funny. We keep seeing signs for Sigfried and Roy – how cheesy.

Quotes:One of the Girls @ Hoover Dam: (Half-joking) “I’ll never travel with you guys again!”Willer: (Under his breath) “Good!”

4 comments:

I can remember walking around with you guys at the CES showcase. We did a TON of walking that night, the entire strip....I can remember the first couple of weeks in LA, my feet were so messed up, you could feel stuff moving around on the top of my foot. Also, I believe we ate at the Circus, Circus buffet. Reminds me of the Vegas Vacation movie when Cousin Eddie asks for some 'blue' and 'yellah'.

I want to say this was also when I was in a McDonalds on the strip, where I had McPizza for the first time. I think they were open 24 hours except for like 4am-4:30am when they sprayed the place down. I think we were there like 3am or so.

I've told many people that story about the spit in the Hoover Dam...amazing.

Vegas, Vegas, Vegas. I remember doing a lot of walking. We all came back to the hotel with bags full of porn hand outs. We dumped them out on the bed and looked through them. We thought it was funny that the picture of the same girl kept coming up but with many different names.

After calling the stripper everyone got so freaked out that some of the guys were putting things back into their cars that they didn't want the pimp and ho to take.

Dinner was at Circus Circus but I never ate there. After walking there I turned and went back to the room. Everyone was still paranoid about the pimp breaking into our room. So I went back to stand guard. No pimp ever showed up. I hung out and watched a Rangers hockey game till everyone got back.

We walked around all the casinos and since we couldn't play we took match books and quarter buckets from each place.

One of the guys (BA maybe?) walked up to a change window and asked for quarters. When the casino employee asked how old he was he said 20. She said you have to be 21 to gamble and he walked away all dejected.